Recentering Globalization

"[A]n engaging and timely book. Its focus on Japan and Asia in the context of debates about Western-centric globalization processes is fresh and welcome. . . . [Iwabuchi] has written a fascinating, well-researched, and original book." - Matthew Allen, Journal of Asian Studies

"[Iwabuchi's] detailed discussion, articulated in terms of the latest cultural and globalization theories, is very illuminating. Offering, as it does, a challenge to the notion that 'global' really means 'the West', this book is highly recommended as course reading for both Japanese and Media Studies." - Mark McLelland , M/C Reviews

"Iwabuchi offers a powerful critique to the 'cultural imperialism' thesis by allowing for the importance of audience reception. . . . [T]his is a refreshing and original book by a Japanese intellectual. More the hope that it will speedily enter into a popular press Japanese translation." - Geoffrey C. Gunn, Journal of Contemporary Asia

"Recentering Globalization offers a rich and complex understanding of cultural flows between Japan and other parts of Asia-primarily Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore-and provides a valuable perspective on studies of globalization that have been centered around Europe and the U.S. . . . It . . . will appeal to a broad range of readers in business administration and cultural studies." - Joshua Hotaka Roth , Journal of Asian Business

“Koichi Iwabuchi has given us a uniquely fascinating and empirically rich study of cultural globalization—Japanese style—as it evolved in the last two decades of the twentieth century. Eye-opening and insightful, this is an immensely readable book, adding considerably to the growing stock of non-Western voices and perspectives in transnational cultural studies.” - Ien Ang, author of On Not Speaking Chinese: Living between Asia and the West

“This book will be one of the most important in Japan studies to come out in a long time. The author’s anaylsis, which theorizes and critiques Japan’s position as a kind of intermediary between Western and Asian pop cultural formations, and the complex will to power that is being worked out under various consumerist guises, is smart and very much needed in the Japan field.” - Karen Kelsky, author of Women on the Verge: Japanese Women, Western Dreams

"A very rich and subtle study. I predict that Iwabuchi´s book will quickly become a central reference in debates over the global organization of popular culture" - Ulf Hannerz, author of Transnational Connections: Culture, People, Places